The Queen who tore up the rulebook
It’s 200 years since Queen Victoria was born, and historian, author and TV presenter Lucy Worsley has been delving deep to discover fascinating facts about her life
imagine a princess kept isolated by her guardians in a rundown palace, who had no idea she was going to be queen. That’s the true-life story of Princess Victoria, and it captivated me from a young age. I loved its triumphant twist – just three weeks after her 18th birthday, her uncle the king died, and she became queen.
Working as one of the curators at Victoria’s childhood home of Kensington Palace has been a dream come true for me. and talking to our visitors there, I’ve come to realise that a lot of people think of her as an old lady perpetually dressed in widow’s black. but that isn’t the whole picture.
Like any 19th-century girl, Victoria was supposed to be quiet and demure, but she loved dancing, excitement and speed. When she was out riding her horse Tartar, for example, she enjoyed it most when “we galloped the whole way home, down hill and everything”.
There were “unprincess-like” lapses – Victoria’s mother and governess required her to log how well she’d behaved in a special behaviour book. she was sometimes “impertinent” and also “very very very horribly naughty!” small wonder her mother admitted that Victoria’s bad behaviour “drives me at times to real desperation”.
In reality, she tore up the rulebook for women on the throne in many ways...
The 20-YEAR-OLD who proposed...
Victoria was destined from birth to marry her German cousin albert. but this was an arranged marriage, not a love match, and Victoria spent three years extremely reluctant to commit herself to it. she decided that she would marry him after all, in the wake of a run of bad press. she knew her image would be transformed by a romantic and public royal wedding. so, contrary to expectation, she proposed to him. Despite this slow start, though, a deep love developed between them.
The MOTHER who refused to suffer
Victorian women were expected to suffer in silence when giving birth, but albert suspected his wife wouldn’t follow convention. He feared that in labour she would “make a great Rompos”. Victoria >>
Victoria became queen three weeks after her 18th birthday
hated the idea of having children and thought that a baby was “a very nasty object”. she was an early adopter of all the medical help she could get. in 1853, she had the physician John snow administer a few drops of chloroform to ease her labour with her seventh child, leopold. many women would come to thank her for demonstrating that pain relief could be safe.
The WOMAN who became Queen
“A poor woman,” victoria wrote, is “bodily and morally the husband’s slave.” victorian gender role models meant that she had to hand Albert much of her power. But after he died, she began to regain her confidence to rule alone. “While the Prince consort lived, he thought for me,” she admitted. “now i have to think for myself.” While she always believed that a queen must be inferior to a king, her own long and successful reign showed otherwise.
The POLITICIAN who played the people…
victoria was deeply socially conservative, and not even that keen on democracy. she once complained about losing a favoured Prime minister, “merely on account of the number of votes.” But she had a strong instinct for populism. she knew just what to say, what to wear, or how to be photographed to please her subjects, and unlike other european nations in the 19th century, they did not overthrow their monarchy.
The WIDOW who went public…
victoria as a widow was expected to shrink away from public life and she did so for a decade after Albert’s death. she then recovered something of her spirit and became better known than ever by publishing bestselling books about her life. her courtiers found this troubling and tried to discredit her by saying that she’d gone mad.
The FRIEND who broke with protocol...
in her later years, victoria formed close relationships with two of her intimate servants: her scottish attendant John Brown, and then her indian urdu teacher Abdul Karim. in both cases, the great and the good thought it was most inappropriate. But both Brown and Karim supported her constantly, and perhaps more generously than the husband who’d often belittled her.